Pritchards done is this article is even half true.... WOW... Get ready...

Who exactly is a defensive-minded player? I'd say having 2/5 of the starting line-up (when healthy) being defensive players is more than adequate in the NBA. Plus, he traded Outlaw/Blake for Camby, another defensive-minded player. I still don't agree with that specific criticism, but I do agree with your larger point.

 

I don't mind a philosophical difference between Nate and KP...my concern is that the philosophical differences are KP vs Vulcan... I don't want ANY basketball related decisions being influenced by those guys.

Is it Nate vs KP with Nate getting some powerful allies in ownership?

 

I'll counter that by saying you don't always need multi-talented players at every roster position, sometimes you just need some specialists to round out your roster and to fill in the gaps that your 'stars' don't. I've said it a few times in the last year, but this roster was primed for chemistry issues when they added so many 'needs shots' guys. Maybe I'm revealing my own biases here about how great teams ought to be built, but I tend to subscribe to the "two or three stars and a bunch of hustle guys with a few shooting specialists sprinkled in" method of roster building.

To KP's credit, I think he's done an admirable job of acquiring young talent (read assets), but I think he's done a less than admirable job of consolidating that talent -- I've wondered for a year now if he's not a little too 'in love' with his guys instead of having that cold and calculating ability to treat them as trading chips and not like people, which speaks well to KP's humanity, but maybe not so well to his ability to be an NBA GM.

 

exactly..vulcan is a bunch of tech nerds

 

FunnyBGF, want talk about the agent more . . . are you still saying the agent is a good agent doing his job. I was right kind of right about the agent being unprofessional and all, huh?

For this post, please tell me where I said KP is one of those people . . .I said if he was one of those people I would understand why management would fire him. And if you believe the article (did you bother reading it) . . . they were saying it was a lot more than KP wanting a contract extention.

I understand why so many are angry with this topic . . .but it wasn't like mixum just typed a bunch of thoughts. He is afterall posting about a yahoo article . . . trash the writer, but at least acknowldge this is a national article about the Blazers and worth at least a thread on a Blazer chat board.

 

Honestly you need about half of your active roster to be those kind of 'defense and hustle' guys -- ie. role-players.

Maybe the real problem is that Brandon and Lamarcus are not good enough (or commited enough) defenders to get away with only two defensive minded players in your starting lineup?

 

BTW-Nice to see KP tow the complany line and praise his boss and the organization.

Clearly he wants to keep his job and I'm guessing if he is as good as this board thinks he is, he will get an extention. I hope he does.

 

I think you're reading my use of the word "talent" too broadly. I simply mean the best players possible, not necessarily the most "well-rounded." When you're building a team from the ashes of a disaster scene, I think it makes sense to be trying to maximize total talent, rather than trying to fill "roles" or other aesthetic considerations.

Stars are hard to find...role-players are not as hard to find. Does Portland already have its stars? Roy is one. You seem to feel Oden is no longer a factor for future consideration. You seem to have soured a bit on Aldridge. So where are the "two or three stars" that Portland needs, in your estimation?

I think you shoot for stars with your higher picks and try to get the fill-in-the-blanks players with later picks, minor trades and with free agent signings. I think Pritchard has largely been doing that.

Until this year, the team was in rebuilding mode. Now, I think the team is entering its contention window (if it were healthy...losing Oden/Przybilla all year and Batum/Roy for significant chunks of the season killed contention this season) and this is when Pritchard needs to change modes. Will he? I don't know...but it remains to be seen. I think it's a mistake, though. to judge him on end-game maneuvers when he and the team weren't at end-game.

 

Pritchard has yet to distance himself from that agent. Perhaps Pritchard wants out of Portland, and his agent is playing bad cop. Vulcan will have a PR disaster on their hands if they fire Pritchard right now, so they need more time to smear his character in the basketball media, which is what they are doing. Funny how the local media isn't being fed any of these stories about Pritchard, isn't it?

For you to be right about the agent, then Pritchard should have already fired that agent. He hasn't, and now articles fed to a known Pritchard hater start appearing.

I wonder if the "anonymous" NBA executive is actually someone within the Blazer organization.

 

We'll just have to disagree (strongly) on this specific criticism of Pritchard.

 

I guess talent is usually applied to dynamic scorers, I suppose I misunderstood you.

Good question ... I have adjusted my expectations on Oden and Aldridge somewhat, as for 'stars' I think Roy is there and perhaps Batum could get there in another two or three years ... tough to say.

I agree that Pritchard's draft philosophy has been pretty sound ...

This season is so hard to judge because it's been so out of the norm with injuries and roster disruption, maybe he was primed to open up that window with some more dynamic trades and roster consolidation (beyond trading expirings for a 35 year old Marcus Camby) -- I still think the jury is out, but seemingly these are the same kinds of concerns PA has had about Pritchard if any of the recent rumblings from A-Woj and Vescey are to be believed. I guess we just wait and see.

 

FWIW.....here's an old Woj article

http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news?slug=aw-milespritchard011709&prov=yhoo&type=lgns

 

an oddly prescient statement from that article:

 

Woj is an ass, as reflected in that article. Hello, Woj, what team is Darius playing for now? The Blazers' letter was a gaffe, but they certainly were the party that got screwed due to an opposing team intentionally using a stupid loophole in the CBA to make certain a competitor didn't have as much cap space as they should have had available due to DM being physically unable to continue to play basketball at an NBA level. I'm not sure how they came out as being the bad guys in Woj's article. I'd think the team risking the health of a player to shaft an opponent was the real ethically challenged organization.

 

excellent find nic... LOVE THAT QUOTE

 

Adrian Wojnarowski has an agenda against KP, not buying anything that geek says. He needs to make it less obvious if he wants people to take him seriously.

 

love this quote too..

Yes, the Jail Blazers made a comeback this season.

Only this time, they wore suits.

 

Dwight adds more...and i agree 100%

What Paul Allen MUST do
March 22nd, 2010 by Dwight Jaynes | 17 Comments | Filed in NBA, Trail Blazers
One time, long-time former NBA coach Del Harris told me a little story that has stuck with me for many years. Harris was not under fire as the coach of the Milwaukee Bucks at the time, but he was responding to pressure on a fellow coach.

“All I’ve ever asked of my owner,” he said, “is that I’m his coach until the day he fires me.”

Huh?

“All I’m saying is that he should back me 100 percent, be in my corner, until the moment he fires me. If he does that, I’m OK with it.”

And that’s so true. And that’s so what Paul Allen, the owner of the Portland Trail Blazers, needs to do right now. He needs to climb down from the ivory tower and tell the world, “Kevin Pritchard is my general manager now and we’re with him all the way, Yeah, he’s made a few mistakes, but we love what he’s done for us and we have no plans to let him go.”

You might call it the dreaded vote of confidence, but there’s a reason this is done. Pritchard needs to hear it and the whole community does. Other teams need to hear it. Because Pritchard is in that GM position and you better be behind him every second he’s there for it to work.

If you aren’t behind him, Paul, fire him right this second. But please — do the right thing and back him right up until that moment. It’s the right thing to do.

 

For once, MIXUM, I'm in complete agreement with both Dwight and you. The planets must be in some unusual and momentary alignment.

 

Dwight's pretty smart for a cynical old fart.